From their webpage I get the feeling that they are using some old projector for the transfers (modified for frame-by-frame captures). If this is a fact then I wouldnÃ‚Â´t recommend sending them negative films due to the risc of scratching the film.

I actually emailed them asking what Telecine equipment they use. I havenÃ‚Â´t gotten any answer yet... So either this is not a full time occupation for them (if they havenÃ‚Â´t checked their emails yet) or they just decided not to answer my questions...?

It seems weird, either way.

IMHO negative films need to be telecined with a proper telecine machine. They shouldnÃ‚Â´t be run through a projector, ever. Hell even a viewer that doesenÃ‚Â´t have pressure plates and stuff can scratch negative films. At least this happened to one of my clients from Australia. He ran the negative films through a viewer and they ended up with scratches. Very small and very weak scratches, but still. The scratches were visible at a few places on the reel.

Uppsala BildTeknik wrote:From their webpage I get the feeling that they are using some old projector for the transfers (modified for frame-by-frame captures).

You are probably right, Kent. But is there any places that can do that in this price range? It's just that I wouldn't want to send films to US to get telecined, mainly because of customs fees and long shipping times.

mauka wrote:Hmm... All this makes shooting with HDSLR very tempting idea...

the recent dSLRs with video mode are very tempting for a lot of reasons. they are small, have good low light abilities, great control over depth of field and production costs are dead cheap.
so if you have no money, it's probably your best option, but the way of working and the end result will be very different to what you'd get shooting on 16mm. it really depends a lot on your project and personal preferences.
personally i feel that film stock is more emotional engaging, and much kinder to human faces, even if some digital formats offer higher resolution these days (not dSLRs though).

there are tons and tons of transfer houses who offer very good quality 16mm transfers (i know about 5 in berlin), they are usually not cheap, but if you have a low-budget project and ask around you might be able to get a favor somewhere.
but even with good deals on stock, processing and transfers, you're still looking at something like 20EUR/minute of footage, so for a short film of 10minutes with a shooting ratio of 1:5, that's about 1000EUR.